Treasure Coast being visited by great white sharks | Photo gallery

Katharine, fitted with a satellite tag, passed Treasure Coast and is southbound

OCEARCH.ORG CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Katharine, a 14-foot long juvenile female great white shark, is eager to escape the life on the M/V OCEARCH shark research and tagging vessel during her satellite tagging placement in Cape Cod in August 2013. Capt. Brett McBride is attempting to keep her calm.

Chris Fischer, founder of OCEARCH

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ZACH GARRISON
An estimated 10-foot-long great white shark checked out an angler's chum slick in 30 feet of water offshore of Vero Beach Saturday.

OCEARCH.ORG CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Katharine, a 14-foot, 2,300 pound great white shark, is seen here swimming alarmingly close to the beach in Cape Cod prior to her being fitted with a satellite tagging device.

UPDATE, THURSDAY, 12:18 P.M.: Katharine has surfaced again after a 42-hour swim at depths where her dorsal fin was deep enough the satellite tag attached to her could not send up a signal. She pinged in off Boynton Beach. Perhaps she was feeding on the large king mackerel that are gathering in spawning schools on reefs off the Treasure Coast and through Jupiter and the Palm Beaches. Chris Fishcer, founder of OCEARCH, said so little is known about great white sharks' life cycles that Katharine and others like her, Mary Lee and Lydia, tagged off North Florida last year will hopefully help unlock mysteries re: the breeding and birthing behavior of what he called these "lions of the sea."